CHEMICAL-ANALYSIS OF COPPER AND BRASS SAMPLES FROM CHRISTIAN-ISLAND, GEORGIAN-BAY, ONTARIO

One hundred and eighty-seven metal samples, recovered from the fortifi ed mission of Ste. Marie II and nearby villages on Christian Island, i nclude 3 samples of native copper, 22 samples of European copper, 19 s amples of brassy copper (less than or equal to 8% Zn), 141 brass sampl es and 2 samples of lead. The European copper samples form 5 distinct chemical groups, possibly coming from 5 different copper kettles. The brassy copper samples are more difficult to group. When the brass samp les are sorted by Ag and As, they form 2 major groupings: group 1 with high Ag and low As contents; group 2 with similar Ag and As contents through to low Ag and high As contents. Group 1 consisted of 11 chemic al sub-groups and 6 outliers, while group 2 contributed 14 sub-groups and 14 outliers. This combines to give a total of 45 potentially unrel ated brass chemistries, and leads to the possibility of as few as 20 d ifferent brass trading items (mainly kettles) from which the samples w ere cut. The snail sub-sets of samples from the sites away from Ste. M arie II tended to fit within chemical groups found there, suggesting s ome possible inter-site contemporaneity.